A boy of 11 was arrested for a school drawing of a stick figure with a gun pointed at four other figures with the words, 'Teachers must die.' Police hauled the youngster from his home in Arvada, Colorado, in handcuffs, took a mugshot, fingerprinted him and then put him in a cell. The boy, who is being treated for Attention Deficit Disorder, faces a misdemeanour charge of interfering with staff and students.

Tim - not his real name - had been told by his therapist to draw pictures when he got upset, rather than disrupt class. After doing the drawing in pencil, he felt calmer and threw it away, but a teacher picked it up and sent him to the principal's office. The school was aware of the boy's medical condition and after deciding he was not a threat, notified his parents and sent him back to class. But that night police arrived at his home and took him away, refusing to let his parents accompany him to the station. His mother, who wished to remain anonymous, told Fox 31 News: 'It was heart-wrenching to see my son, my 11-year-old, walk out the front door in handcuffs and get in the police car. It was violently unfair to the little guy. It's traumatic.'

His parents said what he did was 'inappropriate', but were outraged by the way Arvada officers handled the case. Their son later told them he thought he was going to prison and 'would never be able to go home again.' According to the police report, the boy explained he made the drawing to release anger and would never hurt teachers or anyone. At first school officials did not want to press charges, but changed their mind when police called. A juvenile assessment report shows he's never been in trouble before.

His therapist, Dr Patrick Bacon, described the arrest and cuffing of the child as 'quite an over-reaction. It doesn't seem like there's a victim to this. He's not posing a threat to anyone, he's only 11-years-old. It's bizarre to me they would respond this way.'

The youngster is on probation and if he completes that successfully, the charge will be dropped, say police.

A bit much, but with all those school shootings in recent years I can understand some kind of temporary detainment/therapy for kids in these types of scenarios.
Of course, "Tim" already had therapy going. And they're punishing him for relieving stress in a non-disruptive manner.

An overreaction for sure, but remember it's the same state that gave us Columbine tragedy so maybe preventative measures had to be taken to show the kid that they mean business. I hope that lessons will be learned and that kid will not grow up to be a burden to the society.

I'm not completely against the arrest, as the kid clearly shows either intent or the want to do physical harm to people, in this case "tecaers."

People want to talk about taking things too far with the arrest, how about wanting to kill teachers for not liking his Music class?

EDIT: Leaving my original post up, even though I'm saying this now. Thinking about for a couple of minutes, arresting the kid actually is a bit much. Some disciplinary action, sure. A little talk with the teacher and principle along with the kid's parents and the therapist in this case. Maybe a suspension. Something that can address the issue and find out what the kid's problem actually is (aside from the drugs he's on for his "ADD").

I remember drawing stick figures of me blowing up my school. I also drew me turning into Godzilla and stomping on my teachers.
Oddly enough, neither of those things happened. And at the age of 37 I still haven't murdered anyone.
Of course my teachers didn't have me fucking arrested for doodling stuff at the age of eleven.